BACKGROUND: Helminth infections have proven recalcitrant to control by chemotherapy in many parts of Southeast Asia and indeed farther afield. This study isolates and examines the influence of different aspects of the physical and social environment, and uneven intervention effort contributing to the pathogenic landscape of human Opisthorchis viverrini infections. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional survey, involving 632 participants, was conducted in four villages in northeast Thailand to examine the impact on prevalence and parasite burden of the reservoir dam environment, socio-economic, demographic, and behavioral factors, and health center intervention efforts...

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are ubiquitous in the environment and an increasing number of NTM species have been isolated and characterized from both humans and animals, highlighting the zoonotic potential of these bacteria. Host exposure to NTM may impact on cross-reactive immune responsiveness which may affect diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis and may also play a role in the variability of the efficacy of Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccination against tuberculosis. In this study we characterized 10 NTM isolates originating from water, soil, nasal swabs of cattle and African buffalo as well as bovine tissue samples...

Motivation can be characterized as a series of cost-benefit valuations, in which we weigh the amount of effort we are willing to expend (the cost of an action) in return for particular rewards (its benefits). Human motivation has traditionally been measured with self-report and questionnaire-based tools, but an inherent limitation of these methods is that they are unable to provide a mechanistic explanation of the processes underlying motivated behavior. A major goal of current research is to quantify motivation objectively with effort-based decision-making paradigms, by drawing on a rich literature from nonhuman animals...

Motivation in performance is often measured via competitions. Winning a competition has been found to increase the motivation to perform in subsequent competitions. One potential neurobiological mechanism that regulates the motivation to compete involves sex hormones, such as the steroids testosterone and estradiol. A wealth of studies in both nonhuman animals and humans have shown that a rise in testosterone levels before and after winning a competition enhances the motivation to compete. There is strong evidence for acute behavioral effects in response to steroid hormones...

Methanogens are a unique group of strictly anaerobic archaea that are more metabolically diverse than previously thought. Traditionally, it was thought that methanogens could only generate methane by coupling the oxidation of products formed by fermentative bacteria with the reduction of CO2. However, it has recently been observed that many methanogens can also use electrons extruded from metal-respiring bacteria, biocathodes, or insoluble electron shuttles as energy sources. Methanogens are found in both human-made and natural environments and are responsible for the production of ∼71% of the global atmospheric methane...

Sepsis survivors suffer from additional morbidities, including higher disk of readmissions, nervous system disturbances and cognitive dysfunction, and increased mortality, even several years after the initial episode of sepsis. In many ways, the phenotype of sepsis survivors resembles the phenotype associated with accelerated aging. Since telomere shortening is a hallmark of aging, we investigated whether sepsis also leads to telomere shortening. Male balb/c mice were divided into two groups: the control group received 100 μl of normal saline intraperitoneally; the sepsis group received 15 mg/kg of bacterial lipopolysaccharide i...

In the last decade, progenitor cells isolated from dissociated endometrial tissue have been the subject of many studies in several animal species. Recently, endometrial cells showing characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been demonstrated in human, pig and cow uterine tissue samples. The aim of this study was the isolation and characterization of stromal cells from the endometrium of healthy bitches, a tissue that after elective surgery is routinely discarded. Multipotent stromal cells could be isolated from all bitches enrolled in the study (n = 7)...

Red blood cell (RBC) susceptibility to mechanically induced hemolysis, or RBC mechanical fragility (MF), is an important parameter in the characterization of erythrocyte membrane health. The rocker bead test (RBT) and associated calculated mechanical fragility index (MFI) is a simple method for the assessment of RBC MF. Requiring a minimum of 15.5 mL of blood and necessitating adjustment of hematocrit (Ht) to a "standard" value (40%), the current RBT is not suitable for use in most studies involving human subjects...

Neighborhood dogs may act as reservoirs for several zoonotic protozoan infections, particularly in urban areas, thus constituting a potential public health threat. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the exposure of neighborhood dogs to four protozoan pathogens in public areas with high levels of human movement in Curitiba, southern Brazil. Blood samples from 26 neighborhood dogs were screened by means of the indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) for Leishmania spp., Toxoplasma gondii, Trypanosoma cruzi and Neospora caninum, and a questionnaire was answered by the respective keeper...

Escherichia coli is both of a widespread harmless gut commensal and a versatile pathogen of humans. Domestic animals are a well-known reservoir for pathogenic E. coli. However, studies of E. coli populations from wild animals that have been separated from human activities had been very limited. Here we obtained 580 isolates from intestinal contents of 116 wild Marmot Marmota himalayana from Qinghai-Tibet plateau, China, with five isolates per animal. We selected 125 (hereinafter referred to as strains) from the 580 isolates for genome sequencing, based on unique pulse field gel electrophoresis patterns and at least one isolate per animal...

Among the food safety issues, the occurrence of fungal species able to produce toxic metabolites on the agro-food products has acquired a general attention. These compounds, the mycotoxins, generally provided of low molecular weight, are the result of the secondary metabolism of the toxigenic fungi. They may have toxic activity toward the plants, but mostly represent a serious risk for human and animal health worldwide, since they can be accumulated on many final crop products and they have a broad range of toxic biological activities...

The Muscidae is one of the main dipteran families recognized as important for medico-legal purposes. Although an association of adult flies with decomposing human and animal bodies is documented for about 200 taxa worldwide, cadavers and carrion represents a breeding habitat for considerably fewer species. Species that do colonize dead human bodies can do so under diverse environmental conditions and, under certain circumstances, Muscidae may be the only colonizers of a body. Because of difficulties in identification, many studies have identified immature and/or adult muscids only to the genus or family level...

Cryptosporidiosis, caused by the apicomplexan parasite Cryptosporidium parvum, is a diarrheal disease that has produced a large global burden in mortality and morbidity in humans and livestock. There are currently no consistently effective parasite-specific pharmaceuticals available for this disease. Bumped kinase inhibitors (BKIs) specific for parasite calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) have been shown to reduce infection in several parasites having medical and veterinary importance, including Toxoplasma gondii, Plasmodium falciparum, and C...

Xanthohumol (XN) is a hop flavonoid contained in beers and soft drinks. In vitro and animal studies indicated that XN has DNA and cancer protective properties. To find out if it causes DNA protective effects in humans, an intervention trial was conducted in which the participants (n = 22) consumed a XN containing drink (12 mg XN/P/d). We monitored prevention of DNA damage induced by representatives of major groups of dietary carcinogens [i.e., nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P) and the heterocyclic aromatic amine 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ)]...

Any animal, human or non-human, lives in a world where there are others like itself. Individuals' behaviors are thus inevitably influenced by others, and cognition is no exception. Long acknowledged in psychology, social modulations of cognition have been neglected in cognitive neuroscience. Yet, infusing this classic topic in psychology with brain science methodologies could yield valuable educational insights. In recent studies, we used a non-human primate model, the rhesus macaque, to identify social influences representing ancient biases rooted in evolution, and neuroimaging to shed light on underlying mechanisms...

Methane (CH4) emissions by human activities have more than doubled since the 1700s, and they contribute to global warming. One of the sources of CH4 is produced by incomplete oxidation of feed in the ruminant's gut. Domestic ruminants produce most of the emissions from animal sources, but emissions by wild ruminants have been poorly estimated. This study (i) scales CH4 against body mass in 503 experiments in ruminants fed herbage, and assesses the effect of different sources of variation, using published and new data; and (ii) it uses these models to produce global estimates of CH4 emissions from wild ruminants...

The contribution of Charles Thibault in creating and developing a major international centre of animal research at Jouy-en-Josas (near Versailles) in post Second World War France is recorded in detail. Not only did he select a team of gifted young chercheurs, but he stimulated and supported their research in diverse ways. The projects covered were not only primarily of significance to animal reproduction, but they also became relevant to human infertility studies and to IVF treatments. Members of the team in Physiologie Animale gained international research reputations and seasoned overseas researchers were attracted to Jouy-en-Josas for their sabbaticals...

Together with recent advances in the processing and culture of human tissue, bioengineering, xenotransplantation and genome editing, Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) present a range of new opportunities for the study of human cancer. Here we discuss the main advantages and limitations of iPSC modeling, and how the method intersects with other patient-derived models of cancer, such as organoids, organs-on-chips and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). We highlight the opportunities that iPSC models can provide beyond those offered by existing systems and animal models and present current challenges and crucial areas for future improvements toward wider adoption of this technology...

As pupil size is affected by psychotropic drugs in all mammals, it has been used as a well-established clinical indicator for the preclinical and clinical development of novel drugs. It has been reported that activation of the serotonin (5-HT)1A receptor differently affects pupil response in rodents (mydriasis) and humans (miosis). Thus, it is important to establish a quantitative system for measuring pupil size using other species, such as nonhuman primates. Common marmosets have recently attracted a great deal of attention as suitable experimental animals in the psychoneurological field because of handling ease compared with other nonhuman primates and the requirement for small amounts of test drugs...

BACKGROUND: Bayesian methods can be used to incorporate external information into epidemiologic exposure-response analyses of silica and lung cancer. METHODS: We used data from a pooled mortality analysis of silica and lung cancer (n=65,980), using untransformed and log-transformed cumulative exposure. Animal data came from chronic silica inhalation studies using rats. We conducted Bayesian analyses with either diffuse or informative priors based on the animal data and different cross-species extrapolation factors...